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I will say one thing about that peace bridge it stood up against the floods, partially because of the fact there was no moorings in the center of it. I am just glad we did not erect that bitch only to have it float down the bow the same year.

Yeah, in general the bridge has grown on me. Like many people I thought it was a waste of money to begin with, but it's nicer looking than I expected and people seem to be using it over the other (nearby) alternatives.

I would like the bridge a lot better if they'd put it halfway between 14th street and Crowchild, or between Crowchild and Edworthy park, or one of the many many other locations where there is a pretty decent space with no bridge, and another one might be useful. This bridge was put in between two other bridges that were already a short walk from each other.

We most definitely didn't need another bridge there, regardless of what it looks like and what we ended up paying for it.

I had the same opinion you do when the Peace Bridge was first announced, but after two years of reflection, I have had to change my opinion on the matter.

There is no need for a bridge in either of the locations that you propose. In both cases there is nothing on the south side of the rive to get to other than the bow river path.

The Peace bridge on the other hand, connects a densely populated area with the center of downtown. The fact of the matter is that the pedestrian bridge under the LRT tracks was over capacity during rushhour, and the same can be said for Princess Island. I have commuted over both bridges over the years and they are heavily congested.

In fact I have used every bridge from the Zoo to Edworthy Park, and I can tell you that West of the LRT tracks, and East of Center Street, there is still plenty of room for more people, but from Center Street to the LRT, every bridge was packed tight with people every day, and with continued densification of the area just north of the river (new high rise and low rise condos going into Kensington over the coming years) the situation was only going to get worse.

The fact is more room was required for pedestrians and cyclist to cross the river in this area, and the Peace bridge fits very neatly into a gap in the coverage. It perfectly serves many of the new high rise condos going into Kensington, and it is already heavily trafficked.

Complaining about adding capacity where it is needed is not well thought out. If that's your point of view, then why not complain about the many millions of dollars being spend widening the NW ring road from 2 to 3 lanes. They're putting in a new bridge there, right next to the existing ones!!! Not even the three blocks of separation the Peace Bridge has! Are you not amazed by the waste of that?

No, of course not, it's an incredibly expensive per capita piece of infrastructure compared to anything built for people walking and biking, but no one bats an eyelid. Fact is it will be needed as the communities north of Stoney are developed, just as the Peace Bridge is needed by the communities adjacent to it.

Open your eyes before bitching about something you clearly don't use or understand.

I've been out for the last two years, but before that I commuted via one of those two bridges 4 days a week. We simply disagree on the 'need' for more capacity there.
I've never found the Prince's Island or LRT bridge to be a problem. I don't know about the east end of downtown, as I haven't ever regularly gone beyond the Langevin bridge.

Interesting. It's slightly older than the Peace Bridge, and is apparently bigger - there are two lanes of traffic down it, as you can see in this video. Can't find any connection between the two designers.

Also, the posted picture is a computer generated architectural mockup from before it was made. There are lots of real life pictures on google images.

Anyone else wish that there were no tiny curbs inside the bridge? I'm not a bridge-guy so have to assume that aspect was no small decision to keep the cyclists and pedestrians separated. But when I'm actually on the bridge I wish it was all at one elevation.

The Calgary Sun did a comparison of 3 or 4 bridges (both Calitrava, and others) when the "peace bridge" design was released.

There is nothing unique about our stupid "peace bridge", other than maybe the absurd cost and time over-runs. :/

So much for you big-spending Liberals and your spouting off about how "unique" Calgary's bridge is, and how it was supposed to "set us apart".

What I'd like to know is: Where are all of these tourists and their money that you progressive Liberal idiots were telling all of us would come here to see our city and this abomination of a pedestrian bridge?

Has ANYONE in the world booked a plane ride/hotel visit to Calgary, with the specific goal of seeing this bridge? Other than that Spanish ripoff artist Santiago Calitrava himself.

Fuck that guy, and fuck the previous city council that voted to spend money for that pile of red shit.

You miss the point of this bridge. It was obviously built to boost land values for adjacent land. That a former mayor is involved is only coincidence. The lefties were just useful idiots in this scheme.